A typical schematic view of a conventional camera is showing in FIG. 1. The conventional camera structure includes a lens device 10 and a camera body 20 enclosing a circuit board 21, an image sensor 22 and a receptacle portion 23 for containing the sensor 22. In this conventional configuration, the lens device 10 includes a lens tube 11 with at least one piece of lens 12 inside the lens tube 11, and the sensor 22 is mounted on the circuit board 21. At an distal end of the lens tube 11, the tube is connected with the camera body 20, and the distance between the lens 12 and the sensor 22 is in close proximity.
According to the general optical imaging theory, a reflected light from an object captured by the lens device can be focused onto an optical sensor 22, by a plurality of lenses inside the lens tube 11. An optical sensitive sensor 22 can convert the focused lights into electrical currents. As the electrical current flowing into the semiconductor devices on the circuit board 21 through electrically wired connections, the electrical signals are post-processed and converted into digital data for displaying the reconstructed image on electronic display devices or storing into memory devices.
In the prior art the shape of the lens device 10 is configured as a small circular ring as illustrated in FIG. 1, meanwhile the camera body 20 is constructed in a cubic like shape to accommodate circuit board and electronic devices. In this configuration, the lens set 10 is attached to the camera body 20 and the lenses are designed to be very close to the sensor 22 for a compact camera body design and maintaining good quality of image. The camera systems have been used in many applications in our daily life, however there are cases requiring the lenses device 10 far away from the camera body 20 due to various design constraints in space. Most of the current used and produced cameras provide lens devices with short lengths neither be able to match the design constraints nor be able to meet the required product specifications. As a result, there are demands for novel designs to overcome the design constraints to extend the image traveling length.
The various objects and advantages of the present invention would be more obviously understood as we disclose the detailed description in conjunction with the appended figures.